Thread by @Mikel_Jollett

This is one of the most heartless pieces I have ever read.

JD, as someone who also grew up in very difficult circumstances and who also wrote a book about it, the fact that you have no understanding of immigration, no empathy for immigrants is sickening.

https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1372544218695106565

Why do people come here? Your answer is, because they are greedy.

You don’t care about the poverty and violence they face, which is particularly sad since the REASON you are famous is bc you wrote a book about your own experience w poverty and violence.

You say big business is at the heart of the Democratic Party. You say and again that Republicans are the party of the “working class.” They aren’t. Republicans are becoming the party of the WHITE working class.

These are different things, @JDVance1.

So you reduce the suffering of brown people to “greed,” you ignore the wars, violence they face, the bravery they must show to even attempt to emigrate and instead focus your entire piece on one hotelier you met once.

I don’t even understand how this argument could be printed.

Beyond the fact that it’s not serious scholarship, (you cite no data), I’m struck by how dehumanizing your perspective is. You made a name on the fact that you grew up poor and got out:

That is precisely what these people are doing. You just don’t see it bc they have brown skin.

My wife is the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants. Those children that Trump left to rot in cages? Those are my children.

You applaud him for this. If you wonder why people call you a racist, it’s bc the empathy a hard life should have taught you is only extended to white people.

And the implicit argument of your book (and your piece) is “white people have it rough too so it’s okay if they’re a little racist.”

As a white person who grew up in very difficult circumstances (I was born in an orphanage, killed rabbits to eat, dad in prison), I call bullshit.

Food stamps didn’t make me racist.

Having an incarcerated father didn’t make me racist.

Having to figure out how to get to college on my own in a family where people didn’t pass 8th grade didn’t make me racist.

I got a scholarship Stanford attending a mostly Black high school.

And guess what? Being among my Black peers who were studying hard too, who wanted the same things I wanted, to get out, to move up, that HELPED me. The prayers for me from those wonderful Black families were a blessing of support.

And it also taught me something:

That no matter how hard my life had been, I still carried the privilege of white skin. I wasn’t threatened by police or looked down upon by teachers. I could hide my poverty behind a white face and slip seamlessly into white society, as you have done.

My Black peers couldn’t do that. That doesn’t mean my life was easy. It means the difficulties I faced weren’t CAUSED by the racism of white peoples. And many of theirs were.

So here you are now, @JDVance1: rich, powerful, influential?

And what are you using that power for?

To hurt people. People who grew up just as you grew up. People who want just what you wanted. The only difference is their brown skin.

And I’m not just disappointed in your character because you support Trump, but because you of all people, should know better.

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